7 Energy Saving Tips to Apply at Home, School, and Work

Environmentalism has changed a lot over the years. In the 80s people were struggling with concepts like recycling. Society has taken a while to understand the basics. But people are moving on to more advanced concepts like energy conservation. However, it’s hard to know where to direct one’s efforts.

In this list we’ll look at some powerful energy saving tips. We’ll rank them through a combination of multiple factors. These include ease of use, financial considerations and overall impact.

7. Save Energy by Rethinking Kitchen Skills

The kitchen uses up a surprising amount of energy. One might think that cooking at home would save energy over driving out for a meal. But much of that saving can end up lost by common mistakes.

One of the most important considerations has to do with storage. Cooling or heating food takes energy. One can save much of it by letting the environment take care of some common tasks. Instead of heating frozen food, one can thaw it in the fridge first. And when freezing food, it can first cool in open air.

One should also try to do larger weekly food prep nights. This saves energy by only requiring a single instance of power use rather than several individual attempts. It saves a significant amount of energy when combined with proper freezing techniques.

6. Use Cold Water for the Wash

Water heating usually comes in among people’s most significant energy expenditures. As such, it’s especially notable among these tips. There’s quite a few ways someone can reduce the amount of hot water during any given day. But one of the easiest energy saving tips hardly involves any effort at all.

Basically, one simply needs to use cold water when washing clothing. It’s true that there’s the occasional item which calls for hot water. But for the most part one can easily choose cold water for the wash. This won’t turn into huge savings overnight.

But over the course of months and years it builds up. And aside from personal savings, it ramps up quite a bit as others join in. This turns into a big savings for worldwide energy use.

5. Eating Raw During Lunch

This is particularly notable among the energy saving tips due to wider applicability. It involves home life, and one’s professional or academic options. One simply choose raw foods for lunch. This might not seem to have direct impact on energy usage at first. But one should consider how much energy each meal requires.

Packaged options all involve transportation and of course the actual packaging. Then on top of that one needs to actually heat it. When cooking at home there’s freezing or cooling to consider. And on top of that the actual cooking expenditure.

But raw foods such as salads, trail mix or fruit don’t require any of that. Plus, it’s often the perfect way to add some much needed nutrients.

4. Reconsider Windows

Windows are an important part of most buildings. They’re as welcome in a home as they are in an office or school. But people seldom consider just how important windows are to overall energy expenditure.

Several different energy saving tips all fall under an overall banner of window care. For example, one should consider using blinds or curtains during hot summer days. This keeps the sun from raising indoor temperatures. And in turn, one won’t need air conditioners.

One can also consider window options such as double glazing. These techniques increase overall insulation. And in turn, that means added control over a buildings temperature. But without needing to use energy to do so. And of course one should ensure that windows are properly insulated around the edges as well.

3. Personal Solar Power

People often assume solar power begins and ends with large panels on rooftops. But solar power has become just as viable on a small scale. Larger solar is important, but beyond the scale of energy saving tips for most people.

But personal solar cells come as small as one’s hand. And even portable solar cells as large as a curtain might weigh less than a pound. One should consider setting up small solar cells in windows or even as a curtain.

These small cells won’t power a large appliance. But even fairly modest cells can often bring in enough power to take care of one’s smartphones or tablets.

2. Rethink the Climate Control

This is one of the energy saving tips that’s really only applicable to one’s own home. However, it’s significant enough to still get a high ranking. It all comes down to rethinking how one relates to local climate conditions.

There’s certainly times when one needs air conditioning or heating. But it’s usually far less common than people might assume. Previous tips such as using curtains or windows touch on this subject. But one can push quite a bit further.

People can ask themselves whether it’s just a little bit too warm or cold before going to climate control. One can easily adjust to seasonal changes for quite some time before the extremes of summer and winter begin.

1. Switch to Better Lightbulbs

Incandescent light bulbs are still the norm in most environments. Moving away from them easily wins top ranking among energy saving tips. LED, CFL and halogen lights all offer significant energy savings.

This can range from 25% to 80% less energy usage. Additionally they all last a minimum of three times longer than incandescent lights. And some might last as much as twenty-five times longer. This not only means less power drain from the light.

It means less power used to transport and create light bulbs. This creates a significant savings on an individual level. But it grows exponentially when one considers the world’s entire collection of homes, schools and offices.

Summing Up

In conclusion, it should be abundantly clear that people have a lot of options. However, one shouldn’t take that to mean that it’s a matter of simply choosing the best. One of the greatest things about saving energy is that one can continue improving.

People can not only use every tip, but build upon them as well. And one should also share the results. Other readers, family, friends and society as a whole can join in the conversation.